Former England football captain John Terry's father has denied before a jury that he has an "aggressive, racist temper".

Ted Terry, 59, is accused of calling Amarjit Talafair a "f****** Paki" before headbutting him during a dispute over a cigarette outside a City of London pub on March 22 last year.

Giving evidence from the witness box at the Old Bailey, the self-employed decorator admitted he pushed his head against Mr Talafair's face but denied using racist language.

The jury heard that the Chelsea captain's father had received a 24-month conditional discharge for common assault in 2005 and a suspended prison sentence for an offence of supplying class A drugs in 2010.

Two months after being arrested for racially aggravated assault in March last year, Terry racially abused another man during a train station bust up, calling him a "f****** Irish prick", the court heard.

"Are you someone whose aggression flashes up at the most trivial provocation?

The defendant replied "no".

"When you get angry do you lash out with the first thing that comes into your head, which in your case is racist abuse?"

Terry replied "no" again.

Later, Mr Chalk asked: "This was just another incident where you became angry and aggressive at the most trivial trigger, isn't it?

"And you are now simply coming here to wriggle out of your own racist temper, aren't you?"

Terry replied "no" to both.

Wearing a navy jumper over a sky blue shirt, Terry explained that having a star footballer son could be difficult.

Answering questions from his defence barrister, Alexia Power, he said: "People say 'look that's John Terry's dad over there' and come up to ask things, or they might come up to and have a go and say 'your son can't play football', but you just have to take it and walk away."

But he admitted that his son's fame had nothing to do with the fracas on March 22 or the later confrontation at Barking railway station on May 12.

Terry, of Lennox Close in Grays, Essex, denies one count of racially-aggravated common assault and one count of racially-aggravated fear or provocation of violence.

His work colleagues Stephen Niland, 36, of Quarles Park Road in Romford, Essex, and Tudor Musteata, 47, of Tarves Way in Greenwich, south east London, deny one count each of racially-aggravated fear or provocation of violence.

Terry, who is a father of two and a grandfather of six, said he had around seven or eight pints of beer in the Windsor pub near Fenchurch Street station before trouble broke out.

He admitted that he had called Mr Talafair a "f****** tight prick" after the alleged victim aggressively refused Musteata a cigarette.

Explaining what had happened later, Terry the jury: "I just said 'F*** off, go back downstairs', things like that.

"It wasn't no racist stuff."

Although he admitted that he did push his face against Mr Talafair's, Terry claimed his glasses "would have gone flying" if he had headbutted him.

Niland, a father of two and former schoolboy boxing champion, said he had been celebrating his birthday with colleagues and friends at the Windsor before the altercation.

He denied using racist language towards Mr Talafair or a railway station cleaner that he and Terry allegedly called a "black c***" during a second confrontation.

"I'm not a racist person. I have got two children who have got good black friends, Somali friends and from all different cultures," Niland said.

Moldova-born Musteata, giving evidence in Russian with the help of an interpreter, denied that Terry had told him what to say to police.

It has been alleged that Terry was overheard at Fenchurch Street station saying "When the police call, tell them I never said those things" six days after the fracas.